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The Decemberists Day 5

Schofield Cottage is in a quiet secluded area where axe murderers could thrive and while the pillows may well have been used as sandbags last weekend slept ok. To be fair the late afternoon imbibing yesterday may have contributed to head feeling a tad restless and seemingly unattached. The day looks ok weather wise although rain is predicted later in day which could impact on planned walk to brewery and stumble home . Stay tuned

Today is our only full day in Yarra Valley and by end of it expect to be full indeed. Picking a couple of breweries will be easy, narrowing down Melbourne Cup field of wineries to a winning trifecta could be tricky . At least made sure we had a light breakfast today . Fool me once shame on me , fool me twice sounds about right . First up a coffee and a look at the main street shops. Ah crap, they are open. Poor planning by me fair call.

First up local attraction wise is Selovers Lookout. Lovely view of a barbed wire fence and some water in the distance. Se French are easily pleased as croissants prove time and time again.

First winery of the day is Oakridge. Great place but a rather pretentious youth masquerading as Sommelier . He may settle down when he starts shaving. Wine was fine and they would ship back our other 5 bottles so did the math and bought 6 to make up the dozen. “ ah that is only 11 Sir” . See pretentious and a math whizz to boot . Now we just have to stop buying rest of day……

Back to Frenchie theme so onto Napoleone Brewery . Given it’s French flavour assuming it has one entrance and 17 exits . Impressive looking place that likely goes off like a frog in a sock on a weekend . A frog with no legs left that is . Had the tasting paddle and a bag of chips as a bit peckish by now

The buzz was on by now which means time to find that middle winery. As were on St Hubert’s seemed reasonable to try their winery . Another kinda pushy pourer type person but wine was fine and reasonably priced and when he said buy 3 get one free well what can one do . Still a few days left after all. Of interest here in the YV , the folk don’t like it if you rubbish Chardonnay . Tough luck pal . I don’t mind butter but not a fan of it like Marlon Brando was.

It was time to find a place that did the grape juice caper but also some food. Tarrawarra Estate fit the bill but Restaurant closed for orders at 1 pm and it was 12:59 as we parked car . CLP turned on the charm and we got a table and even could do a wine tasting first . Would need to be something special to entice a purchase at this stage and it wasn’t . Perfectly acceptable of course though. The lunch was exquisite mind you and by end it was fast approaching 3 pm and we still had to fit in nana nap before walking down to brewery later

These Victorians know their weather and as predicted started raining at 4 pm. This allowed CLP to get her beauty sleep in as the walk was off the table now and would be replaced by a quick drive to Watts River Brewery at 4:30 pm for a refreshing ale rather than a session . Not a bad thing necessarily after a long morning . And an extra half hour to sober up first. The beer was fine but the ambience lacking unless you have a thing for sheds and guys with sideburns. To be honest I find if ya get off the merry go round after a few laps it’s hard to get back on. Especially if you have been drinking

Glad in the end we didn’t make an afternoon of it as not only was the enthusiasm waning but it was raining quite heavily even with thunder around .